Petite Maison Blanche, Heritage house in Chicoutimi, Canada.
Petite Maison Blanche is a two-storey house built in 1890 by Elzéard Gagnon in the Le Bassin sector of Chicoutimi, now part of Saguenay. Measuring 24 feet by 24 feet, it is built in pièces sur pièces, a log construction of stacked timbers, and stands alone in a municipal park. Since 2005 its interior holds a museum on the house and the 1996 Saguenay flood.
Built in 1890 by Elzéard Gagnon in one of Chicoutimi's first neighbourhoods, the house passed through owners including Napoléon Tremblay, Thomas Desmeule, Rose Délima Dubé and Alyre Genest before the city acquired it in July 1997. A dam overflow on the night of 26–27 July 1947 flooded the area with minor damage after an employee forgot to open the dam's gates. On 19 July 1996 torrential rains caused the dam to overflow again for four days; the house alone survived the Saguenay deluge.
The house owes its name to its white clapboard siding, and since 2005 its interior holds a museum on the 1996 Saguenay flood. Guy Genest, son of owner Alyre Genest, proposed the museum in the house of his childhood with his wife and son Sylvain. Thousands of visitors tour it each summer.
The house stands alone in a municipal park in the Le Bassin sector of Chicoutimi, on the site of the neighbourhood destroyed in July 1996 and never rebuilt. The museum inside is open in summer and draws several thousand visitors each season; outside, the park gives clear views of the 24-foot-square, two-storey building.
Images of the house during the 1996 flood were used in the first season of Chris Carter's series Millennium, in episode 13, "Force Majeure". The house owes its museum to Guy Genest, son of Alyre Genest, who grew up there and proposed the project with his wife and son Sylvain.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,283 contributors worldwide.